I didn’t find this one particularly difficult but there did seem to be a lot of unusual words and several examples of the dreaded long single word answer. When we played hangman at school if anyone put 14 dashes up on the blackboard there was a pretty good chance that the answer was going to be Constantinople, as that was the only 14-letter word that any of us knew, but my vocabulary has moved on a bit since then.
Usual rules apply, viz, to wit and ergo, I’ve only explained those clues that I think need explaining or wish to comment on, but if the one that had you in a tizzy remains unexplained than feel free to ask for the scales to be lifted from thine eyes.
First in was ASSEGAI but I forgot to note which was last and now I can’t remember.
Across | |
1 | SHOULDER PAD - Carry (shoulder) + home (pad) with the rest the def. I don’t know if the setter was thinking of William “The Refrigerator” Perry from the Chicago Bears or Alexis Carrington from Dynasty. Probably both. |
7 | ABSORB - Def is “draw in” made by adding ABS to ORB. Clever misdirection. I’ll hazard I wasn’t the only one who started out looking for a star, planet or other celestial thingy by putting a word for draw inside a word for muscles. |
10 | SPIT - Reversal of what waitresses get for pretending not to hate you. |
14 | ASSEGAI - (m)ASSES(s) (a)GAI(n). I enjoyed the “jumping out of their skins” device. |
15 | RECITAL - reversal of TIC in REAL. |
16 | GALLEON - GALL (brass as in cheek) + (binnacle)E + ON. |
18 | COLUMBINE - COLUM(n) (short upright shaft) + BINE (not a word I knew but it’s “the flexible stem of a climbing plant”). Columbine, meanwhile, is one of the common names (the other being granny's bonnet) for aquilegia, is a genus of about 60-70 species of perennial plants that are found in meadows, woodlands, and at higher altitudes throughout the Northern Hemisphere, known for the spurred petals of their flowers. |
21 | MISLEADING - MI (Military Intelligence as in James Bond) + ‘S + LEADING. |
23 | SNOTTY - NO T in STY. |
25 | CLANSMAN - CLAMAN(t) around N&S. Didn’t know clamant. |
26 | SANDWICH BOARDS - BOARD S (go on ship south) after the Cinque Port famous for its golf courses and Gogglebox’s Steph & Dom. |
29 | MATSURI - (ritualism)* minus LI. Another unfamiliar word. |
30 | PRECEDENT- P + RECEDE + N(o)T. |
31 | RACER - R for runs plus the genus of trees commonly known as maple to give any of several genera of colubrid snakes, such as Coluber; Drymobius, the neotropical racers; Masticophis, the whip snakes or coachwhips; and Alsophis. |
32 | AVERT - R(ook) inside A VET. |
34 | ACRONYMIC - A CRONY M(onths) + IC for in charge. Not a word I use every day. |
37 | INVOICE - DD with one leading to IN VOICE. |
39 | STAPHYLOCOCCUS - (slouchcopycats)*. A nasty little bugger. |
43 | PRIEST - PRIES + (contrac)T |
44 | HAVE IT MADE - DD wherein one has the it as I.T. |
45 | SPRAT - reversal of TARPS as in short for tarpaulins. |
48 | CHARIVARI - V in CH ARIA R(eligious) I(nstruction). According to Wiki this is the term for a French folk custom in which the community gives a noisy, discordant mock serenade, also pounding on pots and pans, at the home of newlyweds. |
49 | TWILIGHT SLEEP - (pigwhistlelet)* not a term I was familiar with but it’s an amnesic condition characterized by insensitivity to pain without loss of consciousness, induced by an injection of morphine and scopolamine, especially to relieve the pain of childbirth. |
51 | ANIMATE - ANI + MATE where the former is a large black tropical bird of the cuckoo family. |
53 | DAY CARE - CA in (ready)*. |
54 | ETNA - A nice semi &Lit reverse hidden. |
55 | GROYNE - an initial letters construction for something I remembered from O-Level geog. |
56 | READY-TO-WEAR - (r today we are)* |
Down | |
1 | SHALWAR - we kick off the downs with another unknown, South Asian pantaloons-style trousers here made thus: SHAL{l} W{e}AR. |
2 | OYSTER PLANT - basic charade for the common name of a number of plants including a herb. |
3 | LEGAL - LE GAL{l}. |
4 | EPIGRAMATICALLY - (magicalplaymerit)*. Any thoughts on DONE as an anagram indicator? |
5 | PERVERSE - PER + VERSE. |
6 | DECOLLETAGE - Odd letters of DrEw then TA in COLLEGE. As every gentleman knows décolletage is a low neckline on a woman’s dress or top. |
7 | ACTOR - Factor minus the F. A factor is a mercantile fiduciary who receives and sells goods on commission (called factorage), transacting business in his own name and not disclosing his principal. |
8 | SELF-CONFIDENCE - S ELF CON + I’D in FENCE. |
9 | REGALE - R E.G. ALE. |
11 | PREHISTORIC - RE (note) HIS TOR (eminence as in mound) all in PIC. |
13 | FLAMENCO - FLAME + NCO |
20 | DISGUST - DUST around the initial letters of iron stair guards. |
22 | DODGE - DOGE around D(aughter). |
25 | COMPASS - CO M PASS among the definitions for compass in Chambers are “limit” and “range of pitch of a voice or instrument”. I’m not sure which of these relates to “scale” in the clue. |
27 | SURGERY - SURGE + RY for railway. “Go in for a hike” seems an odd way of defining surge. |
31 | RAVAGES - RAGES around A(uthorised) V(ersion). |
33 | ERADICATION - SA(ccents) in ERA DICTION. |
35 | NICHE - H in NICE. |
38 | INTERRELATE - basic charade. |
42 | HACIENDA- H A/C I END A. I once fell asleep next to the dance floor in Manchester’s famous Hacienda nightclub. |
43 | PICKAXE - PICK A + reversal of EX. Not the first thing that springs to mind when thinking of weapons but in medieval warfare footmen would wield these effective weapons and deal devastating blows to their enemies, conquering the battlefields. The pickaxes were just as deadly as swords, with their long spikes able to cause large amounts of bodily harm. |
46 | TOP GEAR - T(ake) O(ff) + PG + EAR. |
50 | SAY-SO - SAYS + O. |